“I remember the taste of the vintage wineFrom '63 through to '69And I'm proud of the things we believed in thenIf I had the chance I'd go around again”

Used an iCard mop up sized background, sprayed Dylusions and Cosmic Shimmer sprays, dried with heat gun then added the Indigo Blue circles stamp. Added She was a Daughter stamp over the top, then the quote from above which has Tea dye DI to add the vintage feel.

completed the details of the challenge on the reverse of the iCard, then added a layer of Perfect Pearls over the top.

I really love these colours and was pleased to get to work with them,i am not too happy with the outcome. All i could think of was Xmas!

I do love bauble shapes, this stamp is from a very old Anna Griffin stamp set.

Used Kaiserfusion Alcohol pens to colour, used lilac and grey tones and finally got the hang of the blending pen! The gem is one i removed from some sandals i can no longer wear, used the KF pens to colour the centre stone and Rainbow Glaze in Berry to add the plum colour.

The card is from stash, has a metallic lilac and grey background.

Added a sentiment to both the inner and envelope, again from Anna Griffin, using Sweet Plum Memento Ink pad.

I had another two goes at getting the colouring correct, adding glazes and glitter,

and glazed all over with glitter.

No greeting has been added as i love the CAS look of the cards, just not too happy with the colours…

Looking forward to your visit and comments.

xxx

I haven’t been too well again and not felt up to visiting too many blogs, please can i apologise. I will try to visit as many as i am able.

Monday, 23 June 2014

Hi Gez here, I am delighted to be your hostess for this challenge.. I love sentiments and sayings, they really say it all to me! They make a piece finished! I'd like you to share some of your favourite words with us this week! They can be a main focal point or an embellishment, it's your choice! Say it with words...

They are the best paints i have used so far, and my double sided plaque has been painted only with DecoArt Americana Satin, DecoArt Media Acrylic and DecoArt Chalk paint called Everlasting.

Side One

Plaque is from the MDF man and is made from greyboard. Painted a layer of Chalk paint called Everlasting to seal the board, when dry added some DecoArt Americana colours, cocoa bean, pumpkin patch, deep turquoise and muted gold. Never used a make up sponge to blend colours before, they work very well with these paints.

Stamped over the background with a Christy Tomlinson She Art word stamp, added more layers with stencilling using Archival cornflower ink pad.

Next painted a thin layer of the DecoArt Crackle Medium and left to dry.

My favourite stencil at the moment is from Paper Artsy and Lin Brown ELB PS004. coloured some of the DecoArt Crackle Paste with Cobalt Teal Hue, Cyan Primary Media Acrylic and Deep Turquoise Americana Satin paints and used a palette knife to spread over the stencil, had some over so place this onto some satin card stock to dry.

When dry added Treasure Gold Onyxite, Indigo and White Fire to the heads and Limited Edition 1 and Aquamarine to the stems, love the way the crackle has turned out.

Used Posca white pen to outline some of the areas on the plaque to give some depth.

Side two was created using the same colours with the added colours DecoArt Primary Yellow and Americana Satin Eggplant.

Used the paste i had over to create a second set of the poppy heads which i fussy cut then adhered onto the plaque.

Treasure Gold was again added but this time in Indigo, Royal Amethyst and Renaissance.

Moth Fab from Stampotique was coloured using the Kaiserfusion Pens, fussy cut and adhered onto the plaque over another piece of the doCrafts washi tape.

The sentiment if another from Dyan Reaveley stamp set Say what you Mean. The two sentiments i have used are wonderful and positive, something i need in my life at the moment, i hope you like them too.

Added another embellishment at the top of the plaque so it can be seen from either side and will make a more stable hanging point.

The final touch was to add another 3 layers of the Soft touch Varnish, everyone needs this in their stash especially if you are a tactile person, you will keep going back to touch the soft surface again and again.

Some macro shots of side two:

I do hope you have enjoyed dropping by, looking forward to your comments.

xxx

Please can i mention that i do try to leave comments where i can. I am not on Facebook or Instagram, Flicker or Google+ so if you leave me a comment from these places i will not be able to return the visit.

Thursday, 12 June 2014

It has been fabulous to see lots of bees in my yard today, they have been mostly feeding from the Lobelia flowers. Hope you can see how beautiful they are especially the ones where you can see the wing movement; you might need to look at the images larger to see the movement.

Tasmanian Iris are a rare breed mini Iris, i got my plant from Arley Hall rare plant sale many years ago. I am sure you will agree they are a very pretty flower. The heads measure just over an inch long, at the moment they are in full bloom and will last another week or so.

It is a wonderful time in my yard at the moment. Hope you are all enjoying your gardens or yards too.

I liked the effect i got from using Pinata Alcohol inks Sapphire Blue and Calabazza Orange. Instead of making one panel i decided to use the half the A4 card and make it into an A5 card.

The washi tape is from Sainsbury’s, thank you again Keren the tape is really useful!

The stamps are from a very old foam set which is for weddings, liked these two bold words, thought they would suit this style of card.

I don’t have any of the sets Sara used so had to improvise. Used Magic Tape to get the text backgrounds. Stuck it onto book pages rubbed down and lifted the words onto the tape. Looks like home made washi tape, very effective and easy to stamp over using an Archival Black ink pad.

The flower was made using Paper Artsy die and beautiful swirl stamp from HP1005 set. The gems in the middle are semi precious and were from Manchester Minerals a very long time ago.

Used some of the cut off card to make the little embellishment under the flower.

Aqua Blue & Yellow

With a Smudge, Splash or Pop of Hot Pink.

Seeing as i am not a lover of either yellow or pink this challenge is good for me as it will make me use colours i find difficult.

Used a book page as the background to the journal page, Portfolio Pastels to create the circles and dots, a Uni Pin pen to highlight areas, Rainbow Glaze to add a little dimension to the pink circles and the pink flower.

Love Posca Pens, their colours are so vibrant yet can be watered down to produce a lovely wash, here i chose to use them as they come out of the pen, the yellow on the dots is very bright.

Used Andy Skinner stencil Hippy chick and turquoise shade Pan Pastels to add the female shape,a black glitter frame to show off the flower and some hot pink washi tape which was given to my by the lovely Keren Baker,thank you Keren!

Hoping you like this entry into Week One of this fabulous challenge, hope to see you there sometime.

Monday, 9 June 2014

Great news this week as over at the Stampotique Designers Blog they are celebrating 150 Challenges. There are some amazing inspirational creations this week by the design team and some amazing news is that Stampotique Designers are going to choose 4 new Designers to join them from the entries of the 150th Challenge! Hope you join in to have a chance of a lifetime!

Now i know i am not going to win, but i am entering just the same as this week sometime it is my birthday and so have my own reasons to celebrate. I was born in 1957 and this year i am 57 years young.

This page is the June DLP front page and i will include this in my DLP post over on my Wordpress Blog. The word of the month is

CELEBRATE

Used Inktense Bars and Windsor and Newton Inks to create the background.

Added stars and cupcakes which were free stamps, then the Fairy and Toadstools from Lindsay Mason and the Balloons from Jelly Bean Soup. Rainbow Glazes cover the Fairy, the balloons and June.

The celebrate word was stamped using a very old alphabet which i can’t find the name of, sorry onto the inside of an envelope. June was stamped using a Kirsty Wiseman alpha set.

Monday, 2 June 2014

Over at the Craft Barn challenge 11 is to use the words Mountain or Mistake. Please visit their blog and join in if you feel like it. Am learning a lot, new quotes, new artists, it has been a blast so far, hope to see you there!

But we could live by the foot of the mountainWe could clear us a yard in the backBuild a home by the foot of the mountainWe could stay there and never come back

Learn from my mistakeLeave what others takeSpeak when spoken toAnd do what others do.

Used an iCard size substrate which has been cut up from a mop up piece of card. The blue is from Dylusions spray Midnight. Added Pan Pastels Orange, Magenta and Dark Red Oxide to create the sunset. Added a layer of Old Gold Metallic Pan Pastel to add the night shimmer, left a little area without and stamped the stars as if they are trying to shoot out into the night sky.

Tore up a piece of paper to get the shape of the mountains and then coloured the area with black Archival Ink. Stamped the house with a freebie stamp from Craft Stamper (very old stamp)and Versamark ink then dusted over with Perfect Pearls.

Used a white Posca Pen to do the writing, must get a thinner nib as this isn’t very legible.

The completed scene and lyrics.

Stamped the reverse of the iCard with the house stamp and the accompanying tree stamp, also added the alium stamp from Clarity Stamps (one of my all time favourite images). Added all the details and stamped the date.

Sunday, 1 June 2014

I'm so excited to be sharing with you my love for polka dots. Almost every thing I own is dotty!

Polka dots are great fun as a main feature or as a delicate accent to artwork. My other love is my favourite colour combination, pink and turquoise. So for this weeks challenge I'm inviting you to have fun with my favourite things: Pink, Turquoise and Polka Dots! I can't wait to see your creations, so get your rubber out and have lots of fun creating :)

Here is my dotty card.

Used Portfolio Pastels through a small circle stencil to create the background, used the bump technique to add a little dimension. Drew larger circles over the top using the same pink and turquoise Portfolios then used some free Indigo Blu stamps for the flowers, dragonfly and the sentiment.

Hand drew the stems which are not quite right on the pink flowers, perhaps i should have left them floating like large bubbles… Yes, that would have worked much better! Hindsight is a wonderful thing lol. Hand drew the black circles also.

Made this for a friend for their birthday. Here are another couple of images.

The envelope was stamped with the larger set of grasses from the free Indigo Blu set.

Thanks for dropping by, any help on creating good stems on flowers would be appreciated.